One of our German DPhil students writes in response to your post:

Are you interested in the concept of “Persoenlichkeitsentfaltung” and its relation to the “General Right to Personality” under Art. 1 (1) and Art. 2 (1) of the German Basic Law? This is in fact the rationale for constitutionally protecting, among other things, “informational
self-determination” according to the German Federal Constitutional Court: our ability to develop a “personality” (not technically called
an identity) by interacting and testing certain forms of behavior with other people, learning from their reactions, adapting behavior etc. The process is considered so important that the state is not allowed to interfere.

Or is this rather a call to arms for more entertaining German compound words?

Gutenachtschlaftallegutgruss

Well, frankly, both. I do think the Germans are more securely on track in the legal and constitutional thinking than we are. But I do love the compound words; it’s like pertinent art and Wibbies all rolled into one. So more of both please!

Yup, I can see from the press release on your blog that what we’re trying to avoid at all costs are “Eingriffe in den absolut geschützten Kernbereich privater Lebensgestaltung.” Cheers Ralf. Keep up the good work. Are you involved in EDRI?

Das ist drei words ” Vorsprung durch Technik ”

Alex

The recent ruling on online searches only made clear that this core area can nowadays be on a server outside our homes or even on our mobile phones.